Terror victim:

'My body feels like it was used as a punching bag'

David Ramati, who was injured in Gush Etzion attack, recalls attack in conversation with Arutz Sheva.

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Eliran Aharon, 20/11/17 03:03

David Ramati

Arutz Sheva

David Ramati, who was injured in Friday's ramming attack in Gush Etzion, recalled the attack in a conversation with Arutz Sheva on Sunday.

“I looked at [the terrorist], and he actually started smiling. A big smile. And I could see in his eyes he was thinking, ‘This Jew’s gonna die,’” he recalled.

“That’s when I started to understand that I’ve got no more than four seconds to make a decision. I had a gun in my holster, I could have taken it out, I might have even hit him or his car, but I would’ve ended up underneath the wheels. The other option is to jump over the protective fence and get out of his way, which I did.”

“I jumped, my head got out of the way of the car, but he still got me from my shoulder all the way down to my ankles. The car simply threw me another 10 meters,” said Ramati. “Once I hit the ground, I said to myself, ‘I don’t know if anything’s broken, but I’d better get back on the road because I’ve got to tell people what’s going on.’”

Once he arrived back on the road, Ramati recalled, he stopped a car that was passing by and explained the situation to the driver and his wife, who immediately called the police, the army and paramedics.

“Ultimately, I suffered three shattered vertebrae and three ribs are no longer functional. I don’t seem to have any neurological damage from the head wound, but my body feels like somebody has been using it for a punching bag,” he told Arutz Sheva.

Ramati said he is grateful that he survived the attack and expressed his desire to spend more time in building the land of Israel and serving the people of Israel.